I Need You
by auslly4eva22
Summary: 10 years after the season 4 mid-season finale. A is gone and all the girls –Aria in particular-are leading happy lives. Aria is living her dream of working with children by running a foster home with Ezra. But that is of course, until she discovers some dark secrets her husband has been keeping from her, some secrets that might have something to do with a certain forgotten stalker…
1. Prolouge

**Heeeey guys so I've been writing a Teen Beach Movie fan fiction that has been highly successful and gotten almost 600 reviews (what?) which is completely and utterly AMAZING. It's been awesome writing that but I am nearly finished now (I only have about two or three more chapters) so I decided to start a new a fanfiction on the most amazing thing on this planet. Hope you enjoy!**

Prologue:

Continuing on straight after the season four mid-season finale

About a fortnight passed before the girls began to worry.

Spencer stood in the Hastings kitchen, robotically making coffee her and her friends. She carried the mugs over to living room and sat them on the coffee table. Aria and Emily sat on one sofa, and Spencer occupied the free spot next to Hanna on the other. All four girls stared blankly at the cappuccinos but no one made a move to pick one up, nor did anyone speak.

"What's that bitch playing at now?" Hanna broke the awkward silence after several long minutes.

"A must be planning something big." Aria spoke next, the anxiety clearly present in her voice.

"We haven't heard from A in two weeks. That can only mean the worst." Emily added.

Spencer took a long sip from her coffee. Similar to children mimicking a mother's example, Aria, Emily and Hanna did the same. They returned their cups to the table and the room fell into silence again, all girls expectantly glaring at Spencer, who was the only one who hadn't spoken yet.

"Maybe we shouldn't worry just yet." She offered. It was the unwritten rule. In every conversation they had there was always one person who tried to keep the peace, and since everyone else was obviously freaking out, it was clearly Spencer's turn to be that person.

"You're right Spence." Hanna said, her sarcasm obvious. "Our vicious, psychopathic, murdering stalker is planning something that could more or less be the death of us; I think this situation calls for a tea party and absolutely no worrying."

Spencer sighed. Unfortunately, the peace keeper was also the one who typically received all the criticism. But she could hardly complain. How many times had Hanna, Aria or Emily tried to keep a level head about a situation and received only accusations from Spencer?

"I meant A's gone quiet before." Spencer added, although it truth she wasn't sure what she meant when she said they shouldn't worry.

"Yeah, and every time it's lead to something massive." Emily argued.

Spencer couldn't agree more, and if she was honest she was petrified herself. But she was not ready to admit that, and she certainly was not ready to admit defeat so she instead fell quiet and retreated to clicking her nails and focusing all of her attention on that activity.

"Maybe Spencer's right." Aria said after the third awkward silence had passed. "Or at least has a point." She quickly followed after receiving critical glares from Emily and Hanna.

Spencer looked up and shot Aria a small grateful smile, relieved someone was taking her side.

"A's always one step ahead." Aria continued. "So yes, A going quiet is probably bad for us but then again what chance do we have of trying to stop anything A does?"

The fourth silence came, however this one was far from awkward. Everyone appeared deep in thought, and Aria appeared satisfied that her point had been made.

"We can't sit around waiting for A to strike. We all have other things to worry about like school, and our families, and our love lives and….."

Aria's voice trailed off as she noticed the smirk the other three girls were sharing. Recently Aria and her ex-boyfriend Ezra Fitz had re-united after a rather long separation, and she'd unintentionally mentioned him dozens of times already.

"Exactly." Spencer quickly latched on to Aria's reasoning. "That's the point I was trying to make." Once again, Spencer didn't really not what her point had been, but that sounded reasonable enough.

Hanna's phone let out a loud ping. All girls exchanged a nervous glance. Aria bit her thumb nail. Emily stood and dashed over to the window, scanning the Hastings' front lawn. Spencer double checked she had no new messages on her own phone.

Everyone held their breath.

Hanna's shaky hands reached in to her designer purse and rummaged around for her phone. Was this it? Was A's newest plan surfacing already? How much worse was this than the last A scheme? How horrendous could one person –scratch that, one team of people- be?

Hanna let out a loud, over dramatic sigh of relief as her phone buzzed to life.

_One New Message: Caleb Rivers _

"Relax, it's Caleb." She reassured her friends, although it was obvious it was unneeded. If it wasn't A, they didn't care who it was.

Hanna tapped the open message button.

_Hey beautiful. Where R U? Are we still on? _

"Crap!" She cursed aloud, standing and retrieving her handbag. "I totally forgot, I'm meeting Caleb for lunch."

She hugged each of her friends and left with a chorus of 'goodbye's' and 'have fun's' while texting her boyfriend back.

Abruptly, she paused in the doorway and narrowed her eyes.

"We'll contact each other instantly if the devil's in touch, right?" She confirmed.

"Yes." Spencer confirmed.

"Absolutely." Emily agreed.

"Immediately." Aria added.

Satisfied, Hanna gave a tiny wave and closed the door behind her.

Aria drained the rest of her coffee and asked Spencer if it was ok if she made another, which of course Spencer was fine with. While Aria was in the kitchen, her discarded mobile on the couch bleeped. Unable to resist a peak, Emily tapped the screen.

_One New Message: Jake _

Spencer and Emily shared a glance.

"So you decided to stay friends with Jake?" Spencer asked suspiciously, already knowing the answer

Aria sighed and came over with her coffee in one hand and snatched her phone with the other.

"No." She mumbled flatly.

"So he's harassing you?" Emily teased, also knowing the answer.

Aria's silence confirmed the suspicion.

"You still haven't broken up with Jake, have you?" Spencer said bluntly.

"No." Aria said, her voice no more enthusiastic then the first 'no'.

"This isn't fair on you or Ezra." Emily protested. "Ezra doesn't know you're still seeing Jake so basically you're cheating on them both."

"I'm not really cheating on Ezra." Aria argued defensively. "I've stopped kissing Jake or showing him affection further then us being friends."

"But technically you're still identified as girlfriend and boyfriend, just as you are with Ezra. So technically you have two boyfriends. Which technically-"

"-Is cheating." Spencer finished for her.

"I know what it is technically!" Aria snapped. She opened the message to avoid eye contact with her friends.

_Hey babe. Just saw the richest chocolate in the confectionary store window and was reminded of your gorgeous chocolate coloured eyes. Can't wait to look into them tonight. See you at seven! Love you! Xxxxx –Jake _

Spencer, who had been reading the message over her shoulder, now burst into laughter.

"Damn you're in trouble!" She giggled.

Aria shot her a death glare.

"It isn't funny! He really likes me, I don't want to break his heart."

"But you ha-"

"I know I have to!" Aria interrupted, annoyed at having heard the same thing over and over again.

She stood and gathered her things.

"I'll do it tonight at dinner." She promised, although the girls were admittedly unsure if the promise was to them or herself. "Until then, I should go get ready. Text you if I hear from A, and make sure you do the same."

And with that she blew them a kiss and disappeared out the door.

Emily left shortly after, renewing her promise to text Spencer if she heard from A.

But she didn't text Spencer that day, and neither did Aria or Hanna.

Or the day after that, or the day after that.

A week passed, then two weeks, then a month.

The girls were constantly on guard now, checking their phones every two minutes. Toby and Caleb were doing their best to track the A team but every evidence of their existence had completely disappeared. Mona rarely came to school, and when she did she stubbornly refused to talk to the girls about anything to do with A and was impossible to find outside of school.

Two months passed. Then three, then four. Aria's grandfather passed away and they attended the funeral, half expecting A to make the blow out return in the church. After all, that bitch did have a thing for corpses.

But there was no sign of A.

Five months passed. Then six. The girls graduated from Rosewood Day and began looking at colleges. Aria went to Hollis, Spencer went to Princeton and, against all odds, Emily got in to Danby, which she knew wouldn't have been possible had A still been in her life. Hanna didn't go to college but instead signed a twelve month model contract with an agent who had been taken with all her photos in the yearbook, even compared to the memorial to Alison DiLaurentis page.

Once again, highly impossible had A still been present.

Seven months passed.

Frequently the girls found themselves waking up of a morning and thinking the whole two years had been nothing but a bad dream, but of course the various evidence of A's existence –old text messages, dolls, hand written notes etc.- argued otherwise.

But it just didn't seem real.

One day, with no warning signs, with no clues, nothing to prepare the girls, A had completely dropped off the face of the Earth, never to surface again.

But you would have thought if these little liars had learnt anything from their years of torture, it was that the past is always close behind, and if you forget it, you're doomed to repeat it.

Apparently not.

**Ok guys what did you think? Yes this story is set ten years in the future this is just the prologue BTW. Please review! Xxxxx **


	2. Modern Family

**Thankyou for the reviews, follows and favorites!**

Chapter One:

Ten years after the season 4 mid-finale

Aria's P.O.V

"Do you hear that?" I asked Ezra playfully, cracking the final egg into the bowl. "Listen really carefully. It's called quiet. I know the noise is unfamiliar but don't worry about trying to get used to it, it won't last long."

Ezra wrapped his arms around my waist and laced my neck with kisses.

"If you don't cut that out, you aren't getting chocolate cake." I laughed.

"I'm sorry, but you said quiet doesn't last long. I think we should make the most it while it does." He smirked.

"ARIA!" Courtney screamed from upstairs.

"Told ya." I sighed, shoving my husband away. "Mix the batter and put it in the oven please. I'll be back in a moment."

I left the kitchen through the exit on the left, which lead to the large living space. The exit on the right lead to our main living room. Our living space consisted of a ten seated dining room table, a tiny second living room with nothing other than a TV and a small two seated couch, a door leading to the backyard and a staircase leading upstairs.

We currently had seven children living with us –mine and Ezra's five kids plus the two girls we were currently fostering- and only five bedrooms, and legally we weren't allowed to force foster kids to share a bedroom with anyone else, so it was our luck that they were cooperative and agreed to share a room.

It hadn't been that way always, however. Two years ago we'd received a fourteen year old girl named Dylan who was set to stay with us for about a year until the court had decided where she should permanently live. Instantly Ezra and I had fallen in love with her – she had been abused by her own parents but, unlike 99% we'd fostered who had received abuse, she wasn't violent or uncooperative, disobedient or difficult. She was simply always trying to impress Ezra and I, desperate to feel like someone loved her but also in fear that if she didn't live up to our expectations she would be hit, as that was all she had ever known. When the court case happened shortly after Dylan's fifteenth birthday I was eight months pregnant with my now one year old daughter Kelly, it was decided that she should go into long term foster care (that is, foster care until she is eighteen) and automatically I knew I wanted to take her. At this point Ezra and I already had four kids and expecting a fifth, so he was highly opposed to taking Dylan, but the night she broke down crying saying she didn't want to leave us and she loved us and our kids like her own family, the only real family she'd ever had, he couldn't say no.

About two weeks after we'd signed the contract to make Dylan our long term foster daughter, we received thirteen year old Courtney, who had been raised by a single drug addict of a mother and was set to live with us for around a year or a year and a half while her dad who had only recently found out he had a daughter (but was thrilled about it) was arranging to move to Rosewood with his wife from where he was currently living on the other side country so that he could parent Courtney, which in my opinion was incredible for a man who'd only recently discovered he had a child.

Unfortunately, Courtney was nowhere near as easy as Dylan. Having come from a home where she could do what she wanted, she heavily resented our rules and boundaries, and most certainly resented our request that she shared a room with Dylan for we were out of spare bedrooms. Of course we were prepared to move our triplets –two who were already sharing a room and one who was sharing a room with little Kelly- into one room, put Kelly in with our eldest child, seven year old girl Sasha, and give Courtney the free room since we were aware we couldn't force foster kids to share a room, and that was what we did.

However, Courtney had vivid nightmares from the awful things she'd seen in her thirteen years, and soon found comfort in the idea of sharing a room with someone else so she wasn't alone. We asked Dylan if she would be okay with it, and being the beautiful girl she was, Dylan instantly accepted out of knowing what it was like to have a history that haunted you.

So we moved the kids back to how they were before and placed Dylan's bed into storage for when Courtney left, and instead bought a set of bunk beds for their room.

Tonight was Friday night and my mother, having adored being a grandmother ever since Sasha was born, had offered to take the kids for the weekend to give us a break. I knew she felt bad about not being able to take Courtney but those were the rules – we weren't allowed to let our foster children stay in the care of anyone other than us. Dylan was allowed to temporarily stay in others care as she was in long term foster care but she'd politely refused, blaming it on homework, but I knew in truth she just didn't want Courtney to be the only one who couldn't go, because that was the kind of beautiful person she was.

Tonight Dylan was out with her boyfriend so it was just Ezra, Courtney and I, and the peace was something we were loving.

"Yes sweetheart?" I sung as I reached the top of the stairs. Courtney was standing naked behind the bathroom door, only her face visible. Her brown hair was soaking wet a dripping and she had eyeliner smudges over her face, having only just climbed out of the shower.

"Could you grab me a towel please Aria?" Courtney pleaded.

I sighed.

"Courtney, please remember to grab a towel before you go into the bathroom." I gave a small shake of my head but went down the hall to mine and Ezra's bedroom and pulled a towel out of the cupboard anyway. I passed it to Courtney and headed back downstairs.

As soon as I'd entered the kitchen the landline began to ring.

"Hello?" I called, placing the phone to my ear.

"Where is your mobile?" My best friend since high school Hanna Marin demanded.

"Oh hi Hanna. I'm good thanks for asking. How are you?"

"Cut the sarcasm and answer my question."

"I don't know. Upstairs somewhere. I've been cooking with Ezra for the past half an hour."

"Well you should have had it with you! I've been trying to contact you!"

"Gee sorry. What's the big emergency?"

"Well you know that adorable purse Caleb gave me for my birthday last year?"

"You left it here." I answered before she could ask her next question. "It's in my room."

"Oh you're amazing. I'll be over in ten."

"Hanna seriously? It's nine pm at night and it's a bag. We're going out for lunch tomorrow anyway I'll give it too you then."

"No because I need to take it with me to lunch."

"Well then come over before we go out."

"No I want it now."

"Do you really need your bag at nine pm at night?"

"It's a designer label and it's limited edition! And plus you currently have one child in your home. This is incredibly rare and may never happen again. I'm coming over."

I sighed.

"Fine. See you in ten."

I returned the phone to its set and joined Ezra in the main living room. He was on the couch under a blanket and motioned for me to join him.

"Hanna's coming over." I said as I climbed under the blanket.

"Now?" He retailed his surprise.

"Yep. She wants her handbag."

Ezra simply laughed and put his arm around me, having gotten to know Hanna increasingly well over the past ten years.

I leant my head on Ezra's shoulder as an infomercial for _Supermop! _ran in the background. Everything seemed so perfect.

Little did I know, just a few hours later, my whole world would be turned upside down.

**Ok first chapter what did you think? Please keep reviewing the first few reviews meant heaps to me!**


	3. Money Money Money

**Ok guys thanks so much for the support! Glad people are liking this story so far**

Chapter Two

Aria's P.O.V

The doorbell rang just a few minutes later and, expecting it to be Hanna, I jumped off the couch and left the living room, went down the hall that was severely littered with children's toys on the floor and family photos on the walls. I pulled open the heavy door to find Dylan on the porch, shivering in the breeze. It was a warm Summer night, but being dressed in nothing except a strapless blue mini dress and back high heels she appeared a little cold.

"Hi Aria. I know you said 9.30pm was curfew but the service at the restaurant was much faster than we expected it to be. I hope you don't mind me being early."

Dylan would have to be the only sixteen-year-old in the world who was concerned about upsetting her parents by being home early.

"Course not sweetheart." I laughed, ushering her inside and closing the door behind her. "Did you have a good night?"

"I did. Thanks for lending me that money, by the way. I promise I'll pay you back on tomorrow, I get paid then."

Dylan had asked to borrow some money before she'd left earlier and I'd given it to her without hesitation – there was a big difference between lending Dylan money and lending Courtney money. Dylan had a job for one, plus she received the twenty dollars pocket money we as foster careers were required to give her, and Dylan would never take advantage of anything Ezra or I did for her. Courtney on the other hand, having only recently turned fourteen, did not have a job and only had the pocket money plus a twenty dollar clothing allowance, and extra allowance that was given to teenage foster children who didn't have a job so that they could buy their own clothes, and Courtney would always come up with some excuse as to why she needed the whole forty dollars each week and couldn't pay us back until eventually we forgot about it.

"Don't stress it's no big deal." I assured her. "I'm just glad you had a nice time."

We walked back down the hall, carefully navigating around the baby dolls, teddy bears and action figures. Just as we reached the living room door the doorbell echoed around the walls again.

"That'll be Hanna." I told Dylan, who understandably looked a little surprised. "Don't ask. Just go through to the living room."

Dylan did so and I went back to the front door and, unsurprisingly, found Hanna on my doorstep. Her blonde hair was blow-dried and pinned in a neat bun, her make-up was flawless and she was dressed in stylish skinny jeans and a bright pink strapless top with ankle boots hiding her feet. She looked even better compared to me, as I was simply dressed in grey light sweatpants and a black t-shirt, both of which were stained with chocolate cake batter, with no make-up on and nothing done with my loose black hair.

"Wow, seriously Han? You're coming to the Fitz house. What occasion has ever required you to dress up to go to the Fitz house?"

Hanna looked down on at her outfit.

"The occasion that there is only one child so less chance of my outfit being ruined."

"Two." I corrected. "Dylan just got home."

Hanna shrugged.

"Two is still a whole lot better than seven."

I said that I agreed and told her to come in. We went through the living room were Hanna said a brief hello to Ezra and Dylan, through the kitchen, up the stairs and into the master bedroom. I reached into my beside table draw and removed Hanna's purse. She jumped up and hugged it like a mother hugging her baby, or a child hugging a teddy.

"You've got issues." I mumbled under my breath.

Hanna's face fell as her gaze settled on Ezra's side of the room.

"What?" I asked curiously following her eyes.

"What's that?" She pointed out Ezra's brown leather book that was poking out of his draw.

"Oh that's Ezra rough draft of the novel he's writing."

"I know that. I'm talking about this."

She strutted around the bed and over to the book, and in one quick move subtracted $100 bill from the book.

"This was sticking out." She said, waving it around. But my attention was on something else that had fallen out of the book as she'd pulled the money out. I joined her where she was next to Ezra's bedside table and bent down to pick up a second $100 bill.

Suspiciously, Hanna and I eyed each other. I didn't feel guilty as I reached for Ezra's book – we didn't have secrets.

I pulled open the cover and gasped at what I saw.

"Aria? Are you up here?" Dylan called from the landing.

"Yes sweet. One moment." I called back.

I couldn't tear my eyes away from what I was staring at. It was unbelievable. It didn't make any sense. There was not one logical reason I could think of for what I was seeing.

There was a dainty knock on the door then Dylan's voice.

"Sorry to be a nuisance but I just need a towel. I'm going to have a shower now."

"Ok pet come in." I said, quickly shoving the book back in the draw.

The knob turned and I rushed over to the cupboard to grab a towel, quickly handed it to Dylan before she had a chance to even step into the room and closed the door again.

By the time the door was shut Hanna had the book back out and was staring at it in disbelief.

Neither of us could make any sense of it.

Neither of us could make any sense of why the inside of Ezra's 'novel', that he had spent hours working on, sketched up plans for, even talked to publishers about, was carved out so to make a hollow space that was filled with dozens of green bills, equaling to a total of thousands of dollars.


End file.
